Category Archives: Scarecrow

“CORVIDAE” & “SCARECROW”

EDITED BY RHONDA PARRISH

Alpena, MI (April 30, 2015) – World Weaver Press (Eileen Wiedbrauk, Editor-in-Chief) has announced the anthologies Corvidae and Scarecrow, volumes two and three of Rhonda Parrish’s Magical Menageries, will be available in trade paperback and ebook Tuesday, July 7 and Tuesday, August 4, 2015 respectively.

Praise for Fae, Rhonda Parrish’s Magical Menageries, Volume 1:

“Seventeen tales… range in feel from horror to upbeat tales about homes where things go right, and are set everywhere from the modern day to mythical fantasy pasts. The best of these stories evoke things from real life – loves and values – and show characters making hard choices that reveal who they are and what they’re made of.”

— Tangent

“Delightfully refreshing! I should have known that editor Parrish (who also edits the cutting edge horror zine, Niteblade) would want to offer something quite unique. I found it difficult to stop reading as one story ended and another began – all fantastic work by gifted writers. Not for the faint of heart, by any means.”

— Marge Simon, multiple Bram Stoker® winner

“There’s no Disney-esque flutter and glitter to be found here — but there are chills and thrills aplenty.”

— Mike Allen, author of Unseaming and editor of Clockwork Phoenix

“Stories of magical beings and the humans they encounter will enthrall and enlighten the reader about both the mundane and the otherworldly. I devoured it.”

Associated with life and death, disease and luck, corvids have long captured mankind’s attention, showing up in mythology as the companions or manifestations of deities, and starring in stories from Aesop to Poe and beyond. In Corvidae birds are born of blood and pain, trickster ravens live up to their names, magpies take human form, blue jays battle evil forces, and choughs become prisoners of war. These stories will take you to the Great War, research facilities, frozen mountaintops, steam-powered worlds, remote forest homes, and deep into fairy tales. One thing is for certain, after reading this anthology, you’ll never look the same way at the corvid outside your window.

Hay-men, mommets, tattie bogles, kakashi, tao-tao—whether formed of straw or other materials, the tradition of scarecrows is pervasive in farming cultures around the world. The scarecrow serves as decoy, proxy, and effigy—human but not human. We create them in our image and ask them to protect our crops and by extension our very survival, but we refrain from giving them the things a creation might crave—souls, brains, free-will, love. In Scarecrow, fifteen authors of speculative fiction explore what such creatures might do to gain the things they need or, more dangerously, think they want. Within these pages, ancient enemies join together to destroy a mad mommet, a scarecrow who is a crow protects solar fields and stores long-lost family secrets, a woman falls in love with a scarecrow, and another becomes one. Encounter scarecrows made of straw, imagination, memory, and robotics while being spirited to Oz, mythological Japan, other planets, and a neighbor’s back garden. After experiencing this book, you’ll never look at a hay-man the same.

Corvidae and Scarecrow will be available in trade paperback and ebook via Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com, Kobo.com, WorldWeaverPress.com, and other online retailers, and for wholesale through Ingram. You can also find Corvidae and Scarecrow on Goodreads.

Rhonda Parrish is a master procrastinator and nap connoisseur but despite that she somehow manages a full professional life. She has been the publisher and editor-in-chief of Niteblade Magazine for over five years now (which is like 25 years in internet time) and is the editor of the benefit anthology Metastasis, as well as the World Weaver Press anthologies Fae, Scarecrow, and Corvidae. In addition, Rhonda is a writer whose work has been included or is forthcoming in dozens of publications including Tesseracts 17: Speculating Canada from Coast to Coast and Imaginarium: The Best Canadian Speculative Writing. Her website, updated weekly, is at rhondaparrish.com.

World Weaver Press is an independently owned publisher of fantasy, paranormal, and science fiction. We believe in great storytelling.

Proposed Table of Contents for SCARECROW

Scarecrow Hangs by Jane YolenKakashi and Crow by Megan FennellOnly the Land Remembers by Amanda BlockSkin Map by Kim GoldbergWaking from His Master’s Dream by Katherine MarzinskyA Fist Full of Straw by Kristina WojtaszekJudge and Jury by Laura VanArendonk BaughThe Straw Samurai by Andrew Bud AdamsBlack Birds by Laura BlackwoodEdith and I by Virginia Carraway StarkScarecrow Progressions (Rubber Duck Remix) by Sara PulsTruth About Crows by Craig PayThe Roofnight by Amanda C. DavisTwo Steps Forward by Holly SchofieldIf I Only Had an Autogenic Cognitive Decision Matrix by Scott Burtness

I love this lineup and I cannot wait to share it with the world 🙂

(Titles and such are subject to change right up until publication, of course)

You know what the last couple months have taught me? Editing two anthologies which are meant to be companions for one another is not twice as much work as editing one anthology. It is exponentially more work.

Truly.

That’s not meant to imply that it’s been a chore, not even close. But it has been more difficult and time-consuming than I had anticipated. And that, right there, is the only excuse you’ll hear from me about why it’s taking me longer than usual to respond to submissions.

It is taking me longer than usual, and I apologize for that but I am working on it, I promise.

Acceptances for CORVIDAE have begun to trickle out. Only a few so far, but there are more to come so if you haven’t heard from me one way or the other, please don’t panic**. Also, if you’ve submitted to both CORVIDAE and SCARECROW, you may have to wait a little longer than those who only submitted to one or the other because I often prefer to respond to both submissions at the same time. I know that doesn’t really seem fair, but try not to hold it against me too much.

Acceptances have not yet begun to go out for SCARECROW submissions, but they will soon. We’re just finalizing a couple of things in the background and then the mail will begin to flow.

In the meantime, I have some fun stats… for people who find this sort of thing fun LOL I may blog about these in a bit more detail in the future, but for now, just some numbers. Let’s call them ‘approximate’ numbers because there’s no reason to believe I didn’t make a mistake at some point.

Corvidae Submission Stats:

Submissions: 135
Rejected: 108
Shortlisted: 26
Withdrawn: 1
Rewrite requests made: 2
Number of stories with no corvids*: 9
Number of stories submitted to me more than once: 3

Scarecrow Submission Stats:

The incomparable Magnus E. Magpie (also known as YEGMagpie) has agreed to read both SCARECROW and CORVIDAE and offer a corvid’s perspective as a tweet-sized commentary to every story. I can’t wait to see what Magnus (who has even run for mayor) will have to say about these stories! 🙂

*literal or otherwise, as best as I could tell
**though, if you’re worried about your submission, by all means, query.

When I looked at the list of things I wanted to signal boost this week I actually felt a little dizzy. “How the hell am I going to fit Twitter, Facebook and blog posts for all those things in without sounding like a social media spam-bot?” I wondered.

Then I got smart and decided to just put all the things into one big blog post. Yay!

Firstly, check out this character portrait:

This is Bayne.

He’s a half-incubus swordsman who figures prominently in many of the stories I’ve written set in Aphanasia (Sister Margaret, Lost and Found and the forthcoming Shadows — which is subject to re-naming LoL).

Bayne is also the character I will be playing with at the Character Death Matches at Pure Spec next month and he’s also the only character from those stories who hasn’t been on a book cover… so didn’t have a portrait.

My daughter, Danica, felt bad for me as she watched me struggle to find a stock image I could crop, Photoshop or otherwise fake to fit my character and she drew this portrait for me 🙂 He looks a little younger in this than he is in the stories I’ve written about him thus far… but I’m taking this as a sign that perhaps I ought to write some stories about a younger Bayne… someday.

Anyway, I’m super lucky to have such a talented kid who is willing to draw character portraits for me. Thank you, Danica! He’s awesome and I love it 🙂

As I mentioned, Bayne features strongly in Aphanasian Stories. If you haven’t read Aphanasian Stories and you like straight-up fantasy, have I got good news for you.

This week I’m participating in #CreepyFreebies. As part of that I am giving away copies of the most recent issue of Niteblade and I’m running a raffle to win a copy of Aphanasian Stories.

However… there’s this t-shirt I wanted (Roots of Remedy) but my Paypal account was a bit short, so I spontaneously decided to put Aphanasian Stories on a super big sale — 70% off (Coupon code: VG96R at Smashwords — click here) to try to top it up a bit*.

That made me feel bad for having Aphanasian Stories as the raffled off item, so I’ll also be throwing in a copy of White Noise for whoever wins. And if you win and you already own a copy of Aphanasian Stories, I’ll give you something else instead. Because.

I’m not just doing CreepyFreebies though. I’m also taking part in #CoffinHop2014 🙂 This is a super fun little system where rather than interviewing one zombie author a day, Julianne instead asks several of us one question each day. The posts are pretty short too, which in today’s world full of constant distractions, seems like a good thing. So far the posts have included:

I was interviewed by Virginia from StarkLight Press recently to celebrate the launch of White Noise. It’s not a very long interview, only about six questions worth, but I really think it gives a lot of insight into what’s going on in my skull. If you’re even a little intrigued, it’s a quick read that ought to satisfy some of your curiosity. You can check it out here:

Annnnnnd there’s only a few days left to get your submissions in for Scarecrow and Corvidae. Our deadline is Halloween, which is my 10 year anniversary so you can bet I won’t be sitting at my computer watching midnight come around so I can officially cut off submissions, BUT if your work isn’t in my inbox by the time I get up on Saturday I won’t be able to consider it.

Related to anthologies, at the World Weaver Press hosted #SFFLunch last week we announced the subject matter for my next WWP anthology:

Sirens

When submissions open (in 2015) I’ll be looking for siren stories to fill its pages 🙂

Lastly, I think. I will be attending World Fantasy Convention next month, as will several of the authors from Fae and A is for Apocalypse. I’ll post another reminder nearly the time, but just as a head’s up, C.S. MacCath will be having a reading where she’ll be reading from her A is for Apocalypse story, N is for… on Thursday afternoon (plus I’ll be reading part of it with her, so be sure to come by to watch me shake in my boots) AND Adria Laycraft will have a reading Saturday evening which will feature her story from Fae, Water Sense.

Whoot!

Unrelated to this post at all, but I have noticed that my website is running slowly these days. I’m in the process of moving domains over to a new host as they come up for renewal so please bear with me until that process is done at which time things should speed up significantly.

*Great plan except that the Smashwords quarter comes at the end of December LOL Oops. #brainfart

I love writing conventions. I’ve only been to a few, but every time I leave feeling exhausted, but also invigorated, inspired and motivated.

During his pre-convention marketing workshop Mark Leslie spoke about serendipity and creating the opportunity to make connections by attending things like conventions and festivals. The whole time he was talking about it I was just nodding along with him. Every time I’ve attended a convention-type-thing I’ve met new people and made new friends and connections. Attending When Words Collide last weekend was no exception.

I met Laura VanArendonk Baugh and Adria Laycraft who have stories in Fae, Leslie and Megan who I’ve connected with online for what feels like forever but is actually closer to a few months, people I share tables of contents with, publishers who’ve believed in my work enough to include it in their titles, local writers who I somehow hadn’t managed to connect with before and lots of other new people (readers, writers, editors, marketers… the list goes on and on…).

And I got to re-connect with people who I only get to see at events like this.

Also? I got to have conversations like these (vagueified–which should totally be a word–anonymized and paraphrased):

~*~

Him: Can I see your tattoo?
Me: Blah blah blah… as you can see I like corvidae. In fact, I’m editing an anthology called Corvidae, and a companion anthology entitled Scarecrow.
Him: I have a scarecrow story, how would I send that to you?

~*~

Me: I’ve always wanted to write a book about THIS THING which totally falls into the same category as a lot of your work but I lack the expertise and there never seems to be enough time in the day.
Him: Do you want to write it together?
Me: Uh, lemmethinkaboutthat–YES^

~*~

Friend: Oh my god! After that panel where part of my story was read I was approached by a publisher and asked to submit!

(Note: When awesome things like this happen to your friends, it’s almost as cool as when they happen to you. It’s amazing to be there in person to help them celebrate.)

~*~

Me: I can’t wait to read your book, when does it come out?
Her: *tells me*
Me: I don’t know if I can wait that long. Do you need blurbs? If I like it as much as I think I will…
Her: Oh, that would be great. I hate asking people for blurbs!

~*~

Awesomesauce Editor, after reading & marking up the opening to Hollow^: I like this. I really like this. Close your eyes and listen to this *reads my (edited) story back to me*
Me: Wow. I didn’t know I could write that well!

~*~

Post on Facebook: Rhonda! The dealer’s room is sold out of copies of Fae, do you have any more?^

~*~

A couple different people (!!): Rhonda Parrish? I’ve heard of you… (and they didn’t mean in a bad way LoL)

Me, after being on my first panel ever in life: Oh man! I made it through and I’m pretty sure I didn’t even say anything stupid! (my goal for every panel was just not to say something stupid. I think I only failed once LoL)
Fellow Panelist, who is awesome #2: You were great. Hugs!

~*~

My point? Conventions rock. I’ve never regretted attending one, and I had an especially awesome time at When Words Collide. Such a good time, in fact, that I’m already registered to attend it again next year. Maybe I’ll see you there?

I am incredibly excited to announce that Fae has officially become the first in a series of anthologies I will be editing for World Weaver Press!

Though submissions are not yet open for our next titles we announce their existence this afternoon on WWP’s month #SFFlunch chat on Twitter so I’m able to share the news with you.

Corvidae and Scarecrow will be the second and third titles I will be editing for WWP (and there may be more in the future, wait and see!)

Corvidae is going to be dedicated to stories about corvids, all kinds of corvids. Crows, ravens, magpies, bluejays, nutcrackers, treepies, choughs… you name ’em, I want to see ’em. I’m looking for fantasy stories (horror is okay as long as it’s not gratuitous) that span the spectrum of light to dark.

Scarecrow is going to be all about scarecrows. Having seen them in everything from The Wizard of Oz to Doctor Who I’ve developed quite a taste for the range of ways scarecrows have been portrayed in the past and want to explore even more new and exciting ones in this anthology. Again I’ll be looking for stories that cover a large spectrum in terms of mood.

Scarecrow and Corvidae are meant to be companion anthologies, in conversation with one another. One of the ways to make my job easier in that regard (and I’m always looking for ways to make my job easier) will be to have overlap between the authors included in the two anthologies. With that in mind I am encouraging people to submit to both anthologies. Not the same story, you understand, but if you happen to have a great idea for a corvid story and an incredible scarecrow story I would very much like to see them both. Also, before someone asks, it is not required to submit to both and submitting to only one will not hurt your chances of acceptance.

Submissions won’t open until July but I was too excited to keep this to myself any longer, and I figured the sooner I shared it the sooner people could start brainstorming stories for these two books.

[Call For Submissions] Scarecrow

Anthologist: Rhonda Parrish
Publisher: World Weaver Press

Scarecrows have been portrayed as everything from empty-headed geniuses to malevolent demons. They’ve appeared in literature and mythology, from as far back as ancient Japan where Kuebiko, the god of agriculture is represented as a wise scarecrow who cannot walk, to more modern representations in Doctor Who. They are supervillains and storybook heroes, hapless and powerful. Wonderfully paradoxical creatures, much like the birds they are (in their most practical forms) meant to scare away. It is no wonder they capture our imaginations the way they do. It’s time the world had an anthology filled with scarecrow stories.

I will be looking for fresh twists on these ancient characters, exotic locations (both real and imagined), three-dimensional characters, and engaging voices.

Scarecrow will be an anthology of well-written fantasy and horror stories (nothing gratuitously gory or violent) of up to 7,500 words long.

Note: I feel somewhat bad using this particular picture alongside this blog because I’m not only looking for dark stories. In fact, though I definitely want some stories on the dark side of the spectrum I will be sad and disappointed if I don’t receive lighter pieces as well.

Scarecrow will be published alongside a companion anthology, Corvidae. We intend for the two books to be in conversation with one another and so would like some overlap between the authors included in each title. Thus we encourage writers to submit to both anthologies. Please do not submit the same story to both books (if the anthologist believes a story is more appropriate for one than the other she will let you know).

Rights and compensation: Payment: $10 and a paperback copy of the anthology from World Weaver Press. We are looking for previously unpublished works in English. Seeking first world rights in English and exclusive right to publish in print and electronic format for six months after publication date, after which publisher retains nonexclusive right to continue to publish for the life of the anthology.

About the anthologist: Rhonda Parrish is driven by a desire to do All The Things. She has been the publisher and editor-in-chief of Niteblade Magazine for over five years now (which is like 25 years in internet time) and is the editor of the forthcoming World Weaver Press anthology Fae.

In addition, Rhonda is a writer whose work has been included or is forthcoming in dozens of publications including Tesseracts 17: Speculating Canada from Coast to Coast and Mythic Delirium.